What do you get from being atheist?

[ChristineM]

Personally, i am waiting for support for his "making Jesus disappear" claim.

However, i will not be holding my breath for either.

Yes, i have been waiting since well before he changed his screen name,

 

[ChristineM]

Oh, did you do the word search?

Nope i am waiting for you to provide evidence of your various claims that i have requested from you.

What you appear to be saying is "i make a claim" then make the atheist work to prove me right or wrong" sorry life doesn't work like that

 

[McBell]

Yes, i have been waiting since well before he changed his screen name,

I wonder if he is going to try the "removing Christ from Christmas" nonsense..?

 

[PureX]

This is quite true there is no direct evidence and jesus is a character in a story, however there is circumstantial evidence that Jesus existed, just not as described in the bible.



Again truth and this forum is full of it

So you have now just proven Colts' and my point by your own posts. And STILL you will not see it.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I saw this question (or one very like it) over the last few days. I can't remember in which thread, or who asked the question, and it doesn't matter. But it does bring up something that I think is really important to the endless arguments between theists and atheists. (I'm not picking any particular theism, no individual religion.)

The reason the question is interesting is because it seems to make a deep assumption, but one that doesn't really seem appropriate -- and that deep assumption is that there is "something useful, something good, something valuable or precious" in holding a belief (or beliefs) about deities, and that the same must hold true about NOT holding such beliefs.

Let me try an example or two: if I don't have any theistic belief, I have my Sundays (or Fridays, or Saturdays or longer periods of religious observance) free. If I don't have any theistic belief, I am free to do anything I like (including murder and rape!).

This is analogically false!

I understand that having a belief in a loving deity, or a saviour, or an afterlife in a heaven or Valhalla can feel comforting and precious. I can see how having a set of rules (positive and negative) can feel as if difficult questions have been pre-decided or answered for you. I can even see how those rules might help you feel more comfortable rejecting -- or even mistreating -- those who aren't like you in those rules.

But here it is: there is nothing to be gained, nothing of value, nothing to provide comfort or guidance, in not believing in deities. We don't get anything from it. It doesn't comfort us, or frighten us. It demands nothing of us. It does not inform our morals any more than it informs our food preferences.

Which brings us the question that theists will immediately ask: "so why disbelieve, why not believe in a deity and gain all the benefits I feel I get?"

And the answer is perfectly simple: because we cannot change our belief on the basis of hoped-for benefits -- any more than theists can change their beliefs on the basis of a desire to be free of all those commandments and rules. To pretend to accept the idea of a deity gives us nothing, because it is pretense. The only thing that can change a deeply-held belief is convincing evidence to refute that which informs those beliefs. And therein lies a deep, deep blockage -- "convincing" is totally subjective: what convinces me isn't necessarily what convinces you.

The more I think about the question in the thread title, the more I think that it's just the wrong question.

Asking "what do you get from being an atheist?" is kind of like asking "what do you get from living outside of France?"

The answer is going to be wildly different depending on whether you're talking to someone who:

• Was born in France and left because they hate it there,
• Was born there and loves it, but moved away reluctantly for work,
• Was born outside the country and just never visited.

... and even within that last category, the reasons are going to be very different for, say, an American who's only ever lived in one county than for a Sri Lankan refugee who fled to Canada.

 

[ChristineM]

So you have now just proven Colts' and my point by your own posts. And STILL you will not see it.

By telling the truth, that there's is no direct evidence of JC and you are happy to agree on that?

And that the circumstantial evidence points to someone quite different to the biblical account.

Fine

 

[ChristineM]

The more I think about the question in the thread title, the more I think that it's just the wrong question.

Asking "what do you get from being an atheist?" is kind of like asking "what do you get from living outside of France?"

The answer is going to be wildly different depending on whether you're talking to someone who:

• Was born in France and left because they hate it there,
• Was born there and loves it, but moved away reluctantly for work,
• Was born outside the country and just never visited.

... and even within that last category, the reasons are going to be very different for, say, an American who's only ever lived in one county than for a Sri Lankan refugee who fled to Canada.

Or

• was born outside the country, visited and stayed

 

[Colt]

Nope i am waiting for you to provide evidence of your various claims that i have requested from you.

What you appear to be saying is "i make a claim" then make the atheist work to prove me right or wrong" sorry life doesn't work like that

I showed you where to find it but you fear being proven wrong.

 

[ChristineM]

I showed you where to find it but you fear being proven wrong.

I asked you to provide evidence, i didn't ask that i should do the job for you.

And of course you have still not answered my question, is your claim true.

As i said, i expect this of you.

Edit. Out of curiosity i have just done a searches

delusional , mostly @Sunstone asking if this or that is delusional, usually nothing to do with religion.

imaginary friends, various atheist haters saying thatsbwhat atheist say but no atheists saying it.

fairy tails, mostly you griping about atheists.

These were only the first page of the search results, I'll let you do deeper searches if you want

 

[Colt]

I asked you to provide evidence, i didn't ask that i should do the job for you.

And of course you have still not answered my question, is your claim true.

As i said, i expect this of you.

I'm not going to go clip and paste all the threads where believers are called "delusional" and have "imaginary friends" with beliefs based on "fairy tails" by Atheist hecklers on this forum. You can easily search on the top of this page but at this point you are bluffing with more demands because you can't admit to being wrong.

 

[ChristineM]

I'm not going to go clip and paste all the threads where believers are called "delusional" and have "imaginary friends" with beliefs based on "fairy tails" by Atheist hecklers on this forum. You can easily search on the top of this page but at this point you are bluffing with more demands because you can't admit to being wrong.

I guess you didn't finish reading my post. Of course you are not going to cat and past, because i can do exactly the same.

And i do not bluff, ive done the searches, for assume you haven't.

 

[ChristineM]

Search results for query: delusional

Search results for query: imaginary friends,

Search results for query: fairy tails

 

[Twilight Hue]

Do you think all this is somehow supposed to apply to everyone else? That because you chose no help from God that everyone else can do the same, and should? Do you think you're superior to them because of it? Could it be that you received help from God without asking and without knowing it?

The thing I can't understand about atheists is why they think everyone else should also be atheist. And why they think they are superior for it. Why they come here to tell theists how wrong and stupid they are.

There is nothing superior about naturally maintaining a negative, which in this case, the lack and absence of God is that negative.

I think it just looks and feels superior to you because it's so extremely hard to continually defend having a theistic view because for no other reason that the argument is always made on behalf of an absentee and clearly mute God that as a result, cannot speak for him or herself alone, no matter what you and others may do to convince otherwise.

 

[PureX]

There is nothing superior about naturally maintaining a negative, which in this case, the lack and absence of God is that negative.

I think it just looks and feels superior to you because it's so extremely hard to continually defend having a theistic view because for no other reason that the argument is always made on behalf of an absentee and clearly mute God that as a result, cannot speak for him or herself alone, no matter what you and others may do to convince otherwise.

I'm defending theism AGAINST the constant onslaught of the atheists that come here telliing all the theists how ignorant and foolish they are for believing in things that the ever-so-smart atheists all seem to know are false without any evidence of it what-so-ever. Believe me when I tell you that I do not see atheists as being especially intelligent. Because I truly do not. I rarely encounter even one of you that can acknowledge and defend your own atheism. Yet you all come here and attack the theists constantly, demanding that they must not only defend their views, but PROVE them to you by your own criteria.

 

[ppp]

There is nothing superior about naturally maintaining a negative, which in this case, the lack and absence of God is that negative.

I think it just looks and feels superior to you because it's so extremely hard to continually defend having a theistic view because for no other reason that the argument is always made on behalf of an absentee and clearly mute God that as a result, cannot speak for him or herself alone, no matter what you and others may do to convince otherwise.

Why are you hung up on something so pointless as superiority?

 

[Twilight Hue]

Why are you hung up on something so pointless as superiority?

Ask @PureX . I think you are asking the wrong person.

 

[ppp]

Ask @PureX . I think you are asking the wrong person.

Oh. Them. Feh.

 

[McBell]

delusional , mostly @Sunstone asking if this or that is delusional, usually nothing to do with religion.

imaginary friends, various atheist haters saying thatsbwhat atheist say but no atheists saying it.

fairy tails, mostly you griping about atheists.

These were only the first page of the search results, I'll let you do deeper searches if you want

It is my belief that that Colt already knew this and was hoping no one else would search and find out he is full of it.

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

I'm not going to go clip and paste all the threads where believers are called "delusional" and have "imaginary friends" with beliefs based on "fairy tails" by Atheist hecklers on this forum.

Nobody is asking you to do that.
Just a couple examples will do.
The fact that you aren't doing it, shows that it's not as easy to find as you like to claim it is.

You can easily search on the top of this page but at this point you are bluffing with more demands because you can't admit to being wrong.

You could easily win the argument by SHOWING here how she is wrong, by actually providing a couple of links to example posts that show how these things you accuse atheists off are supposedly so common.

Instead of this back and forward peeing contest you seem to be insisting on.....

 

[TagliatelliMonster]

I'm defending theism AGAINST the constant onslaught of the atheists that come here telliing all the theists how ignorant and foolish they are for believing in things that the ever-so-smart atheists all seem to know are false without any evidence of it what-so-ever.

If it is so "common" then surely you can present evidence of it. Right?

Believe me when I tell you that I do not see atheists as being especially intelligent. Because I truly do not. I rarely encounter even one of you that can acknowledge and defend your own atheism. Yet you all come here and attack the theists constantly, demanding that they must not only defend their views, but PROVE them to you by your own criteria.

I bet you don't even see the irony in the superiority complex that is just dripping from this quote.